A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 eBook

[4] From the circumstance of the gold, it is probable
Yuste and his
companions had been slain
on their retreat from Mexico, not on their
way there as stated in the
text. From this and other similar incidents,
of parties of Spaniards having
been slain in different places after
the retreat from Mexico, it
is highly probable that several detached
parties made their escape,
who missed forming a junction with Cortes.
He, it will be recollected,
made a detour round the west and south
sides of the lake; and it
is probable that they had turned to the east,
as the nearest and most direct
way to Tlascala and Villa Rica.—­E.

[5] Clavigero, II. 146, exaggerates the armed escort
to 30,000 Tlascalan
warriors, commanded by three
chiefs, Chichimecatl, Ayotecatl, and
Teotlipil. Diaz calls
the two last, Teuleticle and Teatical; but
though his facts are fully
more to be depended upon, Clavigero may be
accounted better versant in
Mexican orthography.—­E.

[6] Clavigero, II. 146, quotes Diaz as saying that
it extended six miles
from front to rear. This
may very likely have been the case, but Diaz
nowhere specifies the length
of the line.—­E.

[8] Clavigero, II. 147, says that Cortes endeavoured
at this time, but in
vain, to come to an amicable
agreement with the court of Mexico.—­E.

[9] In this expedition Cortes appears, by the information
of Clavigero,
II. 152, to have crossed the
southern mountains of the Mexican vale,
and to have reduced Huastepec,
Jautepec, Quauhnahuac, and other towns
belonging to the Tlahuicas,
who were subject to the Mexican empire;
thus judiciously using his
endeavours to strengthen his own party and
to weaken that of the Mexicans,
before proceeding to assail the
capital of that powerful empire.—­E.

[10] This beautiful city was the largest in the vale
of Mexico, after the
capital and the royal residences
of Tezcuco and Tlacopan, and was
famous for its floating gardens,
whence it derived its name,
signifying flower gardens
in the Mexican language.—­Clavig. II.
155.

[11] Diaz mentions a poem circulated at the time,
as beginning in
reference to the melancholy
of Cortes on this occasion, somewhat in the
following strain:

In Tacuba was
Cortes, with many a gallant chief;
He thought upon
his losses, and bow’d his head with grief.

[12] Clavigero, II. 159, carries the number of allies
which joined Cortes
on this occasion, to more
than 200,000 men. In his enumeration of the
several divisions of the army
appointed for the investment of Mexico,
Diaz makes the Indian allies
very little more than 24,000 warriors.—­E.